For Wang Jiawu, former chief engineer at China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, reading is the key to China's aerospace success.
Growing up in a small Anhui town, the son of factory workers with little formal education, Wang's youth was marked by relentless study — rising before dawn, returning after dark — his only companions being the stars that ignited his fascination for the cosmos. In 1980, he entered Beijing Aeronautics Institute (now Beihang University), driven by an unshakable belief that books could free him from the grip of poverty.
For 40 years, Wang dedicated himself to China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the desert. Aerospace, he learned, was no single discipline but a symphony of specialties — automation, mechanics, communications — each demanding relentless study.
As a leader in launch operations, he spent three years systematically devouring 56 technical volumes on aerospace engineering. Professional reading wasn't optional; it was survival, he reflects, adding, "those who can persevere in the aerospace industry all share one common trait: love for reading".
At Jiuquan, every launch required meticulously crafted backup strategies, studied and rehearsed, even if never used. Wang recalls the escape tower atop the CZ-2F rocket, a solid-fueled safeguard never activated yet vital to mission confidence.
His commitment extended beyond engineering. Wang sees English mastery as another way to improve personal ability. "Aerospace is more about building resilience through learning."
Today, Wang attributes China's aerospace triumphs to this culture of perpetual study. Reading, he says, is the "North Star" of innovation, a powerful weapon to conquer challenges and explore the boundless cosmos.
